“I’ve never really talked about this, but I would go days without eating. Or maybe I’d have some fruit and then go to the gym for three hours. I knew I had a problem… It was a gradual process but I changed myself.”

I’d like to hear more context, but this is all we’re getting til the magazine hits newsstands next Tuesday. Still, it’s plenty jarring. Based on what I’ve seen of Lucy on Pretty Little Liars and A Cinderella Story as well as tweets and twitpics, she comes across as an incredibly self-assured young woman. Really, she seems like one of those actresses where she was a normal girl — prettier than average, of course — who just happens to make her living on-camera. But when she’s not walking the red carpet or on a movie set, she’s silly and approachable. And her desire to record music isn’t another attempt to brand herself, but rather a legitimate passion. She tweets photos like this one comparing her cheesy PLL promo pic to Adam Lambert! She’s like an Emma Stone in training.

But her quote shows that you could be the most seemingly well-adjusted person and still suffer crippling insecurities. Especially since she’s been in the biz since she was 16, still developing and yet already under Hollywood scrutiny as she played nameless classmates and younger sisters. It’s clear that it affected her—perhaps not enough to manifest itself into self-harm like Demi Lovato, but enough all the same. So bravo to her for sharing that.

What’s interesting is the only other Cosmo quote included is about Lucy’s boyfriend Chris Zylka. I don’t imagine the two are related, especially since she started dating him in 2011 when she was already clearly in the public eye. It’s very sweet to hear her gush about him:

“I was like ‘holy crap you’re gorgeous!’…It was like no one else was there. We couldn’t stop talking.”

See what I mean about relatable?

Probably the best thing I can say about Lucy is that we’re only hearing about this after the fact. Not that she didn’t have a right to talk to whomever she needed to, but it’s clear that the media were not going to help her through that ordeal. So she dealt with it out of the spotlight.